W.H. mulling emergency stimuli

The Obama administration is mulling a raft of emergency fixes to stimulate the economy before the midterms, including an extension of the research and development tax credit and new infrastructure spending, according to several people familiar with the situation.

Administration officials have been huddling almost continuously during the past week, brainstorming for ideas that would boost employment without hiking the massive federal deficit — with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner rushing to the West Wing for further consultations late Thursday.

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The White House press office on Thursday refused to say how much a financial package might be, other than to say it won’t be a “second stimulus.” But the administration will have a tough time selling nearly any package to some Democrats who increasingly blame the president and his ambitious legislative agenda for their own dismal prospects this November.

The meetings, which had Obama huddling with his economic advisers twice in the past seven days, have yielded no specific proposals. But he’s given the team a priority: find ways to pay for as many of the ideas, mostly tax breaks, as possible without a deficit increase, an administration official told POLITICO.

The R-and-D tax cut, which congressional Democrats already have considered would, for example, be paid for by closing overseas corporate loopholes.

But party leaders were dubious that even a modest, targeted spending bill could pass muster at the height of an anti-tax, anti-deficit, Tea Party-fueled Republican resurgence.

“Republicans have tried to block every other previous attempt to provide a jump-start to the economy, so despite the obvious need, I can't imagine that anything has changed,” said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

"Look, we need to work in a bipartisan way to end Washington Democrats' out-of-control spending spree, stop their tax hike on American families and small businesses, and create jobs," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). "If they're serious about doing those things, we will work with them."

The White House pushed back hard against a Washington Post story Thursday, which reported that Obama is seriously considering a payroll tax holiday geared at kick-starting business spending — a measure the newspaper said could cost up to $300 billion.

“There [have] been a lot of reports and rumors on different options being considered — many of which are incorrect,” deputy White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in an e-mail.

“The options under consideration build on measures the president has previously proposed, and we are not considering a second stimulus package,” she wrote. “The president and his team are discussing several options, as they have been for months and no final decisions have been made.”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has repeatedly said the administration would go small-ball with any plans to boost the economy — and that the Democrat-controlled Congress had no appetite for costly, sweeping measures two months before what promises to be a difficult election cycle for the party.